Belated Blogging- Chiang Mai & Laos!

---

Right, where to begin, so last time I blogged we were leaving for the overnight bus for Chiang Mai. Now, I have nothing against buses HOWEVER this was not a good experience, we chose really bad seats, couldn't get comfy, went from being hot to cold blegh just wasn't fun and didn't get a wink of sleep!!! you know when you just keep looking at the time, willing it to change, 2am, 3am, 3.02am MEH so arrived in Chiang Mai at 6am ish and started to fun times of the old Accommadation Hunt, always a bundle of fun with a heavy rucksack and no sleep being had! WOW sorry for the moaning here!!! anyhoo eventually decided to follow the nice German couple we met on the tuk-tuk who seemed a bit more clued up, we ended up staying where they stayed, place called Juile's Guesthouse, was really nice actually, very hippyish and chilled, we had to wait a few hourse for a room then we were in, we napped, then made friends with a couple of Irish girls and their Moroccan friend and all booked onto a trek together for the next day!!

Up early, we were taken in a hour long tuk-tuk ride to the elephants!!! IT WAS AMAZING!! had a hour long ride on the elephants, they were beautiful, we fed them bananas, i felt like it was a bribe so they didn't throw us off them! sometimes we went up pretty verticle hills. ah it was so good!! after the elephantys we were given some lunch, some rice dish, they are pretty big on rice here incase you didnt know. then it was a trek through the jungle, it was tipping it down and our guide chopped some leaves for us to use as umbrellas, we crossed streams, climbed rocks, mudslides etc, eventually we arrived at a beautiful waterfall and we were all keen to get under it straight away!! after some mucking about there, we trekked back to where the white water rafting takes place. Now, we may complain in England about too much health and safety, there is definitely no worry of that here!!! we were given a tiny talk, then straight in, 3 people from our group fell out, one of the girls fell out and was under the boat!!!!! so scary but everyone survived and it was good fun. once the water calmed we moved onto bamboo rafting which was more chilled but so fun! after this we visited a small tribal villiage it was nice to see somewhere that wasnt swarming with us travellers. we met some of the children they gave us some flowers, so sweet.

ok i have 4 mins left on the computer so really quickly....LAOS WAS INCREDIBLE!!!
we were worried because just the week before we went there had been terrible floods and injuries!! but it was sunny when we got there and did a full day of tubing in the sunshine, the bars were so much fun and theres big waterslides etc and you make loads of friends. we met these three girls who we spent Laos with.

Ok i want to wrap this up before my time goes, but if I can't really explain Laos, if you've been you know, and if you havent you need to!! and it's such a beautiful country too!!

speak soon
Kate x

---